


Little Shadows, Long Shadows

by ivyshort



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, F/M, Future Fic, Identity Reveal, give me that smart crafty chloe bourgeois whos ready to punch a bitch, look im desperate for that good chloe juice, no beta we die like women, the bitch is gabriel agreste
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:29:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25558123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivyshort/pseuds/ivyshort
Summary: Chat Noir disappears when Hawkmoth discovers his identity. His sister takes his place.Marinette panics a little.(Marinette panics a lot.)
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Chloé Bourgeois & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 11
Kudos: 176





	Little Shadows, Long Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> wow, look at that, another long-ass reveal oneshot with Certified Good Person Chloe. nice.

She never thought she'd miss the fidgeting. 

Chat Noir had had the habit of tapping against every surface he could reach, savoring the echo of air vents and the gentle tap of brick, falling into a familiar and comfortable pattern. She'd recognize it anywhere, it was that deeply ingrained in her heart. 

The cycle started with two short taps. 

It ended when a new Black Cat showed up on their normal rooftop.

"He's okay," the new one said, her eyes gentle behind the green lenses, soft and full of reassurance as she raised open palms in a sign of peace, "But he's left the country. It's not safe for you to see him now, or for him to be Chat Noir. He sent me in his place." 

“Prove it,” Marinette hissed, hand on her yoyo. 

“His favorite color is blue,” the girl said, tucking a few stray hairs behind her ear and pursing her lips slightly as she thought, “His kwami is named Plagg and he eats nothing but fucking camembert cheese - thanks, by the way, because now I  _ stink  _ and I’m gonna punch his pretty face next time I see him for it. Your kwami is named Tikki, and Plagg refers to her as Sugarcube about 90% of the time. Chat Noir plays the piano and watches way too much anime, and that’s why he’s such a fucking disaster at romance. His favorite food is Nutella toast, and he used to keep tubs of the junk hidden in his bedroom when he was a kid because he wasn't allowed to eat it.” 

She paused, wrinkling her nose, “His mom disappeared a year before he became Chat Noir. His second biggest fear in the world is disappointing his father, who I think is a complete and utter narcissist and absolutely unworthy of his affection, but I have the benefit of four years of therapy that his jackass father has deemed 'unnecessary' for his little golden poster boy.” 

Marinette considered herself reasonably convinced she wasn’t talking to a sentimonster, so her question was more morbid curiosity than anything, “What’s his biggest fear?” 

The new girl smiled in a strange, sad way, “Losing you, of course. You’d have to be deaf and blind not to see that.” 

They stood there in heavy, uncomfortable silence, and Marinette tried in vain to keep the world from spinning. Breathing used to be so easy. 

“He says he’s sorry,” the blonde said eventually, “He showed up in my room with some Rabbit hero last night, but she didn't let him stay, no matter how much I begged. Said if he was there to face Hawkmoth, the odds of success weren't good, since Hawkmoth is super fucking unhinged these days and would definitely use it against him. She and Plagg didn’t see any other choice to keep him safe after he was compromised.”

The word was bitter on her tongue, and she hated it. If he was sorry, he could have damn well told her himself. She finally understood his attitude back when they were fifteen and Master Fu had decided to hide himself from her partner. She was out of the loop and it  _ sucked.  _

"Compromised?" she asked with a sinking feeling, “Does that mean-” 

“Yeah,” the newcomer said, face twisted in disgust, “Hawkmoth found out his identity. So you get me.” 

“And why would he trust  _ you _ with his Miraculous? Why should  _ I  _ trust you with his Miraculous?” Ladybug hissed, surprised at the venom in her voice, “Maybe I should just take it back now.” 

The newcomer laughed, “Chat Noir is my brother, Ladybug. I know how much this means to him. I will not fuck this up.” 

Chat Noir had never mentioned a sister, but there was a resemblance. She was tall and lanky just like her Chaton, and blonde (though her blonde was paler and neater, smoothed back into a neat french braid). She had a completely different air about her, though - where Chat Noir was all easy charm and nervous energy, she was grim, with half of her top lip pulled up into a perpetual sneer. This girl looked like she was ready to commit murder. 

The blonde seemed to read her suspicion. 

“Look, you have no reason to trust me aside from the plethora of random-ass facts I can spew about Chat Noir, I get it,” she said, her voice flat, “I’ll detransform and Plagg can tell you himself if it makes you feel better. Both of us know who Hawkmoth is now, anyway. Plagg was there, and Chat Noir told me before he left.” 

Ladybug nodded slowly and turned around to face the city, seeing the green light out of the corner of her eye, and a familiar black blob floated back to Ladybug a moment later.

Was it possible for an interdimensional god of destruction to look tired? Because Plagg sure looked exhausted. 

“Is it true?” she asked Plagg, feeling the weight in her stomach deeper now.

Plagg pursed his lips, “Yeah. He’s a mess, but he should be okay eventually. Feels guilty as hell about leaving you, but knowing who Hawkmoth is… It's the smart choice. The newbie should hear from him soon to confirm he’s safely out of France. He didn’t want to go, but we convinced him. Bunnix was pretty persuasive - seems like she's been running through timeliness for a while now trying to figure out the best case scenario. You need time to form your game plan, and if he stayed in Paris, Hawkmoth would use his precious bleeding heart against him.”

“And I can trust her?” she murmured, resisting the urge to turn around and check, “If Hawkmoth knows Chat’s identity, how could he not know this new girl’s?” 

The kwami grinned wickedly, “Oh, believe me, she’s the last person he’d expect.” 

“Can she handle it?” 

“Oh, yes,” Plagg responded, grin stretching, “I like this little Ombretta. The guardians haven’t let me have a holder this full of rage in ages. Give me back to my favorite goody-two-shoes when we’re done, but I’m going to have  _ lots  _ of fun in the meantime. I can’t wait to wail on Hawkmoth properly for how he's treated my kit.” 

Marinette swallowed, but the lump in her throat didn’t go away. 

“You know who Hawkmoth is,” she said, loud enough that the new girl would hear her too.

The little god’s eyes darkened and narrowed, and Marinette heard the new girl snort as she replied, “Yeah, we do. It’s Gabriel Agreste, and I’m gonna cataclysm his fucking face off.” 

That was a pummeling Marinette could get behind. 

.. 

.-.. --- ...- . 

-.-- --- ..-

She’d long since committed the entire rhythm of taps to memory, and she’d known what it meant for almost as long. There’d been a project she’d done not long after he’d started incorporating morse code into a dress.  It was pure stubbornness that she’d never told him she knew what he was saying. At first, it had been loyalty to Adrien, even though there was nothing there to be loyal to. 

And then, it had just gone on too long, and she decided he’d probably forgotten the meaning and committed it to habit instead. No one holds on to unrequited feelings that long, anyway. He’d probably long since switched his meaning, just like he’d long since stopped flirting with her, found some sweet, understanding girlfriend, and decided Ladybug was more a sister than anything. 

But god, did she miss it. 

She missed him. 

Ombretta was competent, and took to her new powers quickly, surprising Ladybug with her grace and agility, but she was no Chat Noir. 

Chat Noir probably wouldn’t have thrown a depowered Gabriel Agreste through a stained glass window, but Ombretta merely shrugged afterwards and muttered how he “got what was coming to him”. Carapace and Rena Rogue shrugged their agreement, and Marinette couldn’t exactly say she  _ disagreed _ . The man absolutely deserved worse.

More than anything, Marinette was glad that Adrien was on vacation, visiting his Aunt in London, and he didn’t have to see his father handcuffed to a stretcher, or Nathalie in the back of a police car. 

Or his mother, gentle and frozen in her glass coffin.

No one quite knew what to do with Emilie Agreste, Snow White in eternal sleep that she was. The superheroes argued with the chief of police, he argued with the mayor, who argued with the president, who went back to the teenaged superheroes.

Eventually, she was quietly transported to the best hospital in the city, under the cover of darkness, and continued her slumber under the watchful eye of France’s best doctors. They didn’t have much to go on, since the illness seemed to be magical in origin rather than mundane, but they hadn’t given up hope yet.

A day after four superheroes walked into the Agreste mansion with a bone to pick, Adrien came back from London. 

He spent a lot of time at the hospital, staring blankly at his mother’s face.

Chat Noir, though - he didn’t return to the skyline of Paris. 

“He’s back in the city,” Ombretta said a few weeks later as they’d completed a patrol they really didn’t need to do anymore.

Marinette’s head whipped around to look at the blonde and she stopped in her tracks, “He’s  _ back? _ But why-”

“This whole thing fucked him up pretty bad,” the blonde cut her off, holding up a gloved hand, “He’s still sorting through it.”

“Is he… coming back?” Marinette asked, hugging herself gently and suddenly feeling more vulnerable than she had since she was fifteen. 

Ombretta nodded, “Eventually. Plagg stays with him during the day, I only take him for patrol and press stuff. He misses you. Won't shut up about you.  _ My Lady _ this and  _ Princess  _ that.”

Her tongue felt like a huge marble in her mouth. Words just didn’t form correctly.

“C-can I see him?” she asked meekly after a few false starts, “I miss him too.”

Her heart plummeted when the blonde shook her head, “He made me promise not to tell you, Ladybug, and I keep my promises. I think he’s being an idiot, but I owe him a lot. So he gets this free pass for now.”

“I worry about him,” Ladybug confessed. Almost every minute she was awake, she was thinking of Chat Noir. Thank god it was summer break, because she would have already failed all her classes since she couldn’t keep her mind on anything else for more than five minutes. She thought about him on the metro, panicked every time a young blond man came into the bakery, and especially whenever she visited Adrien and sat next to him quietly, embroidering for hours on end to pass the time, pausing occasionally to rub circles on his back and run her fingers through his hair. She wondered what Adrien would think if he knew she was the one to strike his father first, the one to lead the charge to bring the man down. 

They hadn't talked about it yet. 

“He’s well cared for, I promise,” Ombretta said, putting a hand on Marinette’s shoulder gingerly, as if she wasn’t sure how to touch her, “Only the best for my brother. I promise.”

Marinette nodded and gave Ombretta a small, reassuring smile, a soft sign of trust, idly tapping out Chat Noir’s rhythm on the other side, where the blonde couldn’t see her hand. 

Ombretta pursed her lips, reminding Marinette almost eerily of Chloe Bourgeois, but she shrugged it off. Chloe certainly didn’t have a brother, and she’d never help Ladybug or Chat Noir anyway. 

“He’s not going to be strong enough to keep up this secret identity shit anymore, not for a long time,” Ombretta said eventually. Sitting down on the edge of the roof and staring out over the city, “But he’s convinced himself you’ll hate him if you know who he is.”

Her head snapped up, and Marinette fought a bubbling, frustrated rage as she felt her heart break for the second time in as many weeks.

“I could  _ never. _ ”

Ombretta laughed and met Marinette’s fiery gaze with a tired, resigned look, “I know, you’re so in love with him that it’d be pathetic if it wasn’t sweet. Reminds me of another girl that fell head over heels for him a long time ago.”

Ladybug froze, staring past the other hero as her brain short circuited. Her mouth hung open slightly. 

In love with Chat Noir.

Her!

In love with him!

The  _ concept.  _ It was laughable. He was her friend - no, he was her best friend, sorry Alya - she couldn’t be in love with him, he’d already moved on. There wasn’t a chance, and she wasn’t in love with him. Every girl with an ounce of heterosexuality went weak in the knees when Chat Noir smiled, right? That was just par for the course.

And if she missed him so badly there was an ache in her chest, that her breath was shallow and her thoughts couldn’t wander past him, so what? He was her best friend. She missed him for his easy charm, and the way he hummed his favorite songs when she put her head on his shoulder, and the bright, clear citrus scent of his shampoo. The bad jokes that never failed to make her smile, the gentle pep talks whenever she was feeling down. 

She missed his tapping. 

“I’m-” she stopped and tried to swallow, “He’s-”

Ombretta smiled again and rolled her eyes, “He’s so in love with both sides of you. You morons are made for each other.”

Her world came crashing back down, “He knows? H-how could he-”

“He doesn’t,” the blond said, turning her head back to the city and giving Marinette’s shoulder a gentle, awkward pat, “But I know him. I know the dumb look he gets on his face whenever he falls in love. And I’ve had my suspicions for years about you.”

Marinette only blinked, “Then you-?”

Ombretta shrugged, “Just suspicions, Ladybug. And, if I’m right-”

She stood abruptly, shifting her hand off Marinette’s shoulder and pulling out her baton, “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t fix it, but I am sorry.”

Marinette blinked back, surprised at the turn in her new partner’s tone, “What are you apologizing for?” 

Ombretta hugged herself and looked away, a funny half smile on her face, “Oh, you’ll see.” 

“I’m still not following.” 

The blonde blinked, “God, you’re  _ both  _ so dense, you’re really made for each other. See you in twenty.” 

With that, the blonde extended her baton and lept gracefully off the roof. 

See her in twenty? What the hell was that supposed to mean? The only place Marinette was going tonight was-

Oh.

Oooh. 

.. 

.-.. --- ...- . 

-.-- --- ..-

She spent ten minutes screaming on that roof and wearing a hole in the concrete from her pacing, and it only took five minutes to get to Adrien’s apartment. 

Marinette used the final brain cell she had to detransform in the alley next to his building before she slammed in through the window as Ladybug. He wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready? What if she was wrong, and Ombretta was wrong, and Adrien  _ wasn’t  _ Chat Noir? What kind of scene would that be? 

Instead, she ran up six flights of stairs and pounded on his door, breathless and ruddy cheeked, bracing herself against the doorframe as her legs turned to jelly. It only took a few seconds for the door to open, but they felt like years, sending her brain spiraling back and forth. 

"Marinette, you're early!" Adrien said when he saw her. 

Her breath caught in her throat. That was her Chaton's voice. How the  _ hell  _ had she never noticed before? It was all the same. The hair, the eyes, the height. It was him. She didn't even need to look to know. 

"I wasn't expecting you for another half an hour." 

Right. Because it was Friday, and it was movie night like it had been for years, all through Lycee, and it was 7:54pm and not 8:30 like she usually showed up. They'd agreed to keep the tradition through all of everything. She'd texted him about it yesterday, and she'd told him she was bringing special snacks. 

Empty handed. Idiot. She had everything in a bag back at home. 

The hallway was sweltering. Her eyes darted up to the hand he ran through his hair and the glint of silver on his finger. 

"Is that- I was- I, uh-" she stammered, staring up into his eyes and feeling her stomach churn, "Ran early tonight." 

Adrien nodded and gestured her in, "Chloe just dropped by for some coffee, she's in the kitchen." 

The final piece slid into place. 

"C-cool. I wanted to talk to her!" Marinette blurted, dumping her coat unceremoniously on the floor by the shoe rack and making a beeline for the kitchen, "Girl stuff!" 

The blonde girl raised an eyebrow as Marinette burst into the kitchen, deadpan and bitchy as ever, "What, Dupain-Cheng? Do you need a fucking tampon?" 

"You!" Marinette squeaked, shaking her finger accusingly. 

Chloe snorted and took a sip of her coffee, "I sure am me. What, expecting someone else?" 

Marinette opened her mouth and some hideous combination of a strangled cat and angry bear came out. She grabbed Chloe's wrist and pulled her down the hall into the bathroom, coffee cup and all. 

"You said you promised." 

"I may have," the blonde responded, "And that promise is still intact. Perfect record. Intact. I told neither of you anything." 

"Spirit of the law, Chloe, not the letter of it," Marinette hissed, "What the hell do I do with this?!" 

Chloe blinked slowly, "I’m not your keeper. Not my problem.”

Marinette stomped her foot as hard as she could without making too much noise, “It is absolutely your problem! You did this! You said he wasn’t ready!”

“He’s never going to be ready,” Chloe answered, her voice low, “I’ve been trying to convince him for weeks, and it’s just getting worse. You know him too, Marinette. If he’s not pushed a little, you two will have three kids by the time he gets the courage to tell you he’s who he is. The only reason he  _ hasn't  _ told you is because he's scared to death he's going to lose you, and we both know that's never going to happen, so he's ready. He's been ready since you two were sixteen.”

Marinette sat down numbly on the toilet before her knees gave out.

Chat Noir was brave in many ways. He could hold up a building, or throw himself into the path of an akuma without blinking. 

But Adrien struggled to tell her what he wanted for his birthday.

"You never liked me. Why this, why now?" Marinette muttered, cradling her head in her hands and staring at her knees intensely. 

Chloe shrugged, "Therapy does wonders. I haven't disliked you in years, Dupain-Cheng. Just figured you probably didn't want to see all that much of me, so I kept my distance." 

“He needs you,” Chloe continued, softer than Marinette had ever heard her, pushing her long blonde hair behind her shoulder, “And I trust you. You wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

Marinette nodded. 

“I’ll give you two some space.”

The door closed softly behind her, leaving Marinette alone in the little bathroom, still breathing hard. She heard the muffled voices of both Adrien and Chloe, wondering if Chloe bothered to concoct any sort of cover story, another door open and close, and then the gentle noise of tidying up. 

Forget facing Hawkmoth. Forget every math test she'd ever taken, every celebrity she'd ever designed for. This was way worse. Butterflies didn't even begin to cut it. 

Tentatively, Marinette drew in a final breath and stood back up, taking a moment of pause before pushing the door open. 

Adrien was drying a pot, brow furrowed slightly like he was lost in thought. She'd seen him that morning - she brought him pastries at the hospital every morning, his favorites to make sure he ate  _ something  _ during the day. He always looked like hell had chewed him up and spit him out, but everyone looked worse under those hospital halogen lights. Now, freshly showered, hair still damp, Adrien looked half alive, at least. A hint of color graced his cheeks again. 

It was easy to think about Chat's sweet, carefree smile on his lips. 

"H-hey," she said, hugging herself and perching herself half-sitting on the armrest of his couch, "Sorry." 

He hooked the pan on the rack on the wall and looked at her, green eyes gentle and slightly confused, "You and Chloe okay? I know she's a lot, but she's really improved since College and I-" 

"She's great!" Marinette blurted, "We, uh, decided to start over. Since we see so much of each other right now. A-and we both care about you a lot, so it seemed like the time. Fresh slate. For both of us." 

He smiled, and she felt her heart soar. She hadn't seen a smile like that since before he left for London. 

"That means a lot to me," he murmured, twisting the dishcloth in his hands, "Thank you." 

The next words were harder, and she opened and closed her mouth several times before saying anything at all, thanking her lucky stars that Adrien was distracted by the dishes and didn't notice her gaping like a fish. 

_ You're Chat Noir and I'm Ladybug and I've been in love with you since we were fifteen  _ was certainly straightforward, but it wasn't very gentle. Maybe she didn't have to do it tonight. He had enough on his plate. She didn't need to add onto it quite yet, so it could really wait. Chloe would keep quiet for a while, especially if she bribed her with a new bespoke outfit. She'd stared at posters of Luka's new band a  _ lot _ on patrol. Maybe if Marinette introduced her it would buy her another week. Luka was single right now, and judging by his last couple partners, he was at least a little into bitchy blondes actively working on being better people. 

He caught her staring again and the look in his eyes was so soft, so tender that Marinette stopped breathing.

That was how Chat Noir looked at Ladybug. 

They locked eyes for a few moments before he coughed and looked away, blush creeping up his neck. She was pretty sure she was as red as a tomato by now. 

"Any movie you want to watch tonight?" she asked instead of vomiting. 

"Wasn't it your turn to pick?" he answered, putting away the last dish. 

"It's never my turn to pick. I always choose Pride and Prejudice," she said, "You know that." 

He chuckled, lips cocked into his crooked half smile, "Maybe it's a Pride and Prejudice kind of night. Did you eat dinner?" 

Marinette shook her head. 

"Thai sound good?" he asked, flicking through his phone as he walked over to sit next to her on the couch. She nodded and slipped down from the armrest onto the cushions. 

She nodded instead of agreeing, finding she couldn't quite form words. 

Instead, she mustered up the last of her courage and tapped the end table twice. 

.. 

Another quick tap, then a long one. His head jerked up from his phone and he started at her as she did two more quick taps. 

Three longs. 

Three shorts and a long. 

One short. 

.-.. --- ...- . 

He was staring at her now, eyes wide, frozen. She hesitated before starting the last word. If she stopped now, she could just write it off as coincidence. 

The silence was deafening. Marinette broke the eye contact between them and curled herself into the tightest ball she could and buried her head in her knees. He knew. She was committed now. Might as well finish digging her own grave. 

Long, short, two long. 

Three long. 

Two shorts, one long. 

-.-- --- ..-

"I'm sorry," she whispered when he said nothing, not daring to look up just yet, "Bad timing. That's me. Queen of reading the room. You have way too much on your plate already. I'm so sorry. You probably moved on years ago, that was a really dumb thing to do. I-that-you can pretend you never-" 

"Do you mean it?" he whispered, voice half cracking on the last word. 

She nodded the best she could with her face still firmly planted in her skirt. Her eyes were a teary mess, and the eyeliner was probably staining the chiffon overlay. 

"I didn't think you noticed," Adrien breathed, and she could feel his gentle hands on her shoulder, guiding her back up. 

"I notice everything you do, Kitty," she said, voice thick and wet as he cupped her cheek with his hand and turned her back to face him. 

If there was any doubt in his mind, it was gone now. 

"You're-" he said, his own eyes wet as he wiped her cheeks dry with his thumb, "Oh,  _ wow _ ."

He made no moves to pull away, so she tentatively reached up to muss his hair into Chat's style. Adrien leaned into the touch and placed their foreheads together gently, ghosting her fingers gently over her earrings, as if to triple check. 

"My Lady," he breathed, and she felt the wonder in his voice wash over her like a wave. 

"Hi, Chaton," she giggled and hiccuped, fighting the lump in the back of her throat. 

He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, sweet and timid, and she tightened her fingers in his hair and pulled him in closer, savoring the taste of coffee with hazelnut creamer on his lips and the smell of his citrus shampoo. 

She could feel Adrien smiling through the kiss and the wetness on his cheeks as she moved a hand up to trace his jawline. 

"It's you," he murmured when he finally pulled away, his beautiful green eyes fluttering back open, "Oh, wow, it's really you, isn’t it? I dreamed about this, even after Multimouse. I always hoped." 

"It's me," she repeated, nuzzling her face into the crook of his neck and shifting herself all the way into his lap so she could hear his heartbeat and feel every breath, "I missed you." 

"I'm sorry for leaving you," he said, breathless, mumbling into her hair, "I didn't want to. Everything happened really fast after Father found out I was Chat Noir."

She hugged him tighter, finding she couldn't quite get close enough, "I know you would have stayed if you could.”

“When Bunnix showed up, she told me to pick someone to leave the Miraculous with,” Adrien murmured, “I wanted to leave it with you,”

“Me?” she asked, “Like, me-me? Or Ladybug?”

“You. Marinette,” he turned his head slightly and leaned back so she could see his face again, “She wouldn’t let me. Threw a pot on my head and started ranting about how I  _ always  _ choose you. I should have known then.”

“You had a lot going on,” she replied, cupping his cheek in her hand, “Chloe practically had to spell it out for me, and I don’t even have an excuse.”

He laughed lightly, and Marinette’s heart soared, “She kept telling me Ladybug wasn’t going to be upset. I should have listened.”

“She’s become kind of annoyingly perceptive,” she said, half-pouting at how much she’d legitimately enjoyed Chloe’s company as Ombretta for the past few weeks now that she wasn’t overwhelmed with anxiety worrying about Chat Noir, “I almost can’t believe it’s the same Chloe that put gum on my seat. I owe her big time.”

He smiled, radiating contentment, “She says you’re even. Told me before she left.”

“I should have been there with you, Chaton, I’m so sorry,” she said, stroking his hair, “I’m glad Chloe was.”

“You were with me, Marinette,” he said, brushing her bangs to the side and combing through a lock of her hair delicately, “You texted me  _ constantly _ while I was gone, and you’ve barely gone home to sleep since I got back to Paris.”

She sniffled and smiled back, “It’s not hard. Especially when I’ve been a little in love with you since we were fourteen, and you reminded me of another blond boy I’m pretty desperately in love with but I couldn’t contact because I was dumb enough not to give him my cell phone number for emergencies, so I just put all my anxiety about him into making sure you were taken care of.”

“In fairness, if we had exchanged numbers, that would have killed the whole  _ secret identities  _ thing,” he offered, and they both giggled.

“Can you imagine if we’d done that at fifteen? I never would have looked you in the eyes again,” she snorted.

He winced, “I would definitely have disaster flirted in front of the whole class and made an idiot out of myself.”

“I probably would have panicked and pushed you off a roof.”

“You did that plenty without knowing my identity, Bugaboo.”

“You know what I mean,” she said, shoving him lightly and pulling him back in for another kiss.

“I love you,” he murmured when they broke apart. 

Her heart jumped into her throat hearing it out loud, plain and open, “I love you too.”

His fingers traced her features, looping gently around her earrings, then the line where her mask usually met her face, and Marinette could feel the gentle adoration in his touch.

“I hope my mother can meet you,” he said softly, twisting a lock of her hair in his fingers.

“We’ll figure it out, Kitty,” she replied, leaning in and touching their foreheads together so he couldn’t look away, “She’s going to be okay.” 

He nodded, and Marinette almost burst back into tears with the calm, unwavering trust he gave her. Some things were Chat, some were Adrien, but that trust was both of him. It was there during group projects and akuma battles alike, constant and warm, like a well-fed flame.

"She's going to adore you," he whispered. 

“And she’s going to be so proud of you, Adrien,” Marinette said, wiping the tears off his cheeks and leaning in to to kiss his cheek. 

There was a world-weary sadness in his eyes, but he smiled back, “I hope so.”

“I  _ know  _ so,” she responded.

  
  
  
  
  


  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Oops, my hand slipped and i included luka/chloe how did that happen
> 
> i had an entire scene where adrien described how nuts his dad went but it just...didnt fit. so suffice to say gabriel tended toward chat blanc levels of shit fatherhood here


End file.
